text: The dramatic increase in genome sequencing technology has caused the number of protein sequences deposited into public databases to grow apparently exponentially.  To cope with the influx of sequences, databases use computational predictions to auto-annotate individual proteins functions.  While these computational methods offer the advantages of being extremely high-throughput and generally provide accurate broad classifications, exclusive use has led to a significant level of misannotation of enzyme function in protein databases.  Thus although the information now available represents an unprecedented opportunity to understand cellular metabolism across a wide variety of organisms, which includes the ability to identify molecules and/or reactions that may benefit human quality of life, the potential has not been fully actualized. The biological communitys ability to characterize newly discovered proteins has been outstripped by the rate of genome sequencing, and the task of assigning function is now considered the rate-limiting step in understanding biological systems in detail.